Profit in poker comes from playing better than your opponents do - this is the “skill” part of the game. Often, playing better is not enough to show a profit because even if you’re a favorite going in, you will many times find yourself losing at showdown. Of course, you will sometimes be on the other side of that coin and be the one with the worst hand going in and then get lucky and outdraw your opponent. It happens. For the better player, it doesn’t happen quite often enough to say “it evens out” because the better player won’t get “lucky” as many times as he or she won’t take a race with the worst of it as often as a worse player. But that doesn’t matter much; poker isn’t a game of equality, it’s a game of winning money. And the better player wins more money.

Okay? Okay.

Now, what does it mean to be the better player? It means that the size and frequency of your mistakes are both smaller than the size and frequency of your opponent’s mistakes.To give a simple example:

You’re last to act on the river in a limit hold ‘em game. Your opponent - who has checked to you - will call a single bet with any pair and ace-high. The board is K-8-8-J-2 and you have A-7. Clearly, betting is a mistake; No worse hand will call, no better hand will fold. If YOU bet in this situation but another player wouldn’t, then the other player is better in this situation. This is a mistake that you make that your opponent doesn’t. But why is betting on the river a mistake? Because you read your opponent as someone who will not call with a worse hand, and will never fold a better hand.

That’s important. You have a read on your opponent. Your read makes the play an automatic mistake. If your read had been that he will fold any hand but trip eights or better, then a bet may be great (depending on the size of the pot). The play that was the worst possible with one read may be the best possible with another. Reads matter.

When someone submits a hand for discussion and don’t give any reads, the only possible answer is how it should be played against “typical” opponents. How good or bad is that advice if your opponent isn’t typical? Who you play against dictates very much how you should act in any given situation. Thinking in terms of “optimal play” or “default moves” is for situations when you have no reads whatsoever, but you should then be aware of the fact that the move you’re contemplating often will be a losing proposition. Reads are really, really, really important. Default plays are like investing your money in a savings account: It’s the safest move, but you’re missing out on a LOT of profit.